WOYWW # 649 {a blizzard}

 

Happy desk peeking day, if you'd like to see more spaces or play along 

the link up for this blog hop starts here at our hostess

Miss Julia's Blog.

There is also a new Instagram hashtag of #WOYWW

 

 what the top of my table looked like when I came home yesterday. ( no joke) 

the center pile was delivered monday night as an order I had placed with SSS for my birthday I caved and bought a deckle trimmer and the Memory box windowfolder/die set, the TH pile on the top arrived inside a halloween gift bag. 

 

the stamps that have been arriving from eBay that were under and in and around those piles.

a couple of weeks ago, three? a big branch from the neighbors tree blew down on the fence in the back.

Some of the cleaning they did while we were at work.

the amazing part of this is we really only have to replace maybe 2 or 3 boards and the top rail to the little chain link fence for the pen around the outside of the chicken coop. 

but, they have been calling for more high wind gusts, and this tree is in total overgrown mess mode so

Last Saturday hubs rented a boom lift and whacked what he could reach with it. ( anything over the fence) and a little bit from the west side of the back of the tree on her side of the fence ( over her shed) 

I think we may get more light on our veggie garden next year, so now the hope is that there may not be as many illegal pot farms stealing water so that people have enough to irrigate and keep their home wells running. 

that's about if from me, I will be driving all day for work again today and it may be a few days before I go poking around. the school has not canceled their fund raiser craft sale this year as of yet so, that is another mess going on up here and down inside the garage. will shoot more shots of that later. Stay safe out there and thanks for stopping by.

WOYWW # 584 {random thoughts}

 Happy desk peeking day,

if you'd like to see more spaces or play along with us

the link up for this blog hop starts here at our hostess

Miss Julia's Blog.

 There is also a new Instagram hashtag of #WOYWW

 

My Actual desk on Wed am. I am one of those people who plays with the scraps when I am putting things away and the other day I had made a sample for the Inspiration challenge which I am hosting that goes live this week and I had wanted a second generation deer on the project so, this deer is the first generation of ink and I seen these Waffle flower dome dies and thought this could be a little scene if you play with them and fun thing I found was the bases that come in this set cut the woodgrain pattern into that piece. ( fun stuff, this is very preliminary and will get inked and such as I go along I am sure) the paper glaze and Impression Obsession sentiments are new ones that are waiting a turn to be played with too.

It's been so hot all summer long we actually had a thunder shower with lightning that hit the power converter box on the pole between my house and my neighbors house. it knocked the power out last Thursday for a little while ( it really only took the power co. 2 hours to get that box switched out and restored) very nice. so, the drive way looked like a little stream and there was fairly good sized hail with the show too.

personally I like to sit on the porch when it rains in the summer ( and its coming straight down not in sideways right) I love how it smells when it is so hot and then all the sudden it rains. but, Izzy was less than impressed. She really wanted back in the house but, she also wanted me to go inside with her. 

Part of our drive way, The streets where we work were completely flooded for a couple of days after and then when it was all over they said we got a 1/2" of rain. the drainage systems here are not set up to handle the water loads like they see on the East Coast of the U.S. where they talk about getting their rain in inches and feet. 

that mountain in the background, it disappears from the view on days the valley fills with smoke, so the rain was nice, it really knocked a lot of that down.

 Just something fun, I have been finding clumps of frogs in the green house this last week or so, this year has been less frogs than previous years it seems so, its always fun to find them. ( most of them hopped off when I sprayed this tomato with the water hose. That's about it from me, I hope you are all doing well and thanks for stopping by.

WOYWW #443 {it's beginning to look like Christmas}

Happy Desk Peeking day, you can find more to see and play along here 

where the hop originates at our hostess Miss Julia's Blog. 

The guys at work will be getting their gift cards in these cute square tins I found at Joanns fabric's so, tags are under construction for that the cream ones will get names stamped on them and I am debating about those Unity trucks on them ( they are going to stick off the edges of the tags but, its a matter of if it will look dorky or not.)

 Last weekend was our long holiday in the states we had 4 days off in a row so, I was able to organize more unmounted sentiments and put those away while hubs decided for the first time ever that we really should have out door decorations. ( all these years the answer has always been NO if I say do you want something?) He did all of this by himself ( in the rain) we have a 14' step ladder and this blue spruce tree is taller than that. The inside tree is also up and decorated.

 Last Saturday the Inspiration challenge at splitcoast stampers headed to a site called The company store where I found this felt wreath ( seen below) and loved the textures it had so, I used some Hero Arts wreath dies with shimmers and textured papers to create some layers of texture for this card. The believe sentiment is a Simon Says Stamp die and the night before Christmas printed paper came from A Muse studio's. There are some bitty nuvo pearl drops on the wreath leaves ( seashell & rose gold)

Felt holiday wreath Inspiration piece.
in other news our aging lab dog Grace is going in to the vets Friday am to have a large tumor removed from her back leg. they think it's attached to the muscle and do not want her to lose the function of her leg so, it has to go. And that is pretty much all I think about lately so, I am looking forward to being distracted by what you all are up to. thanks for stopping by.

For TOS {thatotherSharon}

Once upon a time when we first bought this house Sharon sent me some of the tubers from her garden from Kansas inside a damp baby diaper through the mail. ( which worked really well as you can see) :) unfortunately her husband passed away a week ago and needing to do a sympathy card for her I had come across this Iris stamp from Magenta and thought maybe maybe.

I wanted it to have an no line look so, I used distress oxide pads to stamp it and used polychromo's pencils to fill in the space where the bloom meets the stem ( and color them) The funny part about all this is, I stamped and colored this first and then the day after when I mailed this card I found one had opened to shoot it. so, I did have the colors in my head right just the stamp had more of an Siberian Iris look to the petals so the colors are not in the same spaces..

The background was done with a textured white piece of Bazzill cardstock and I just patted some Distress oxide inks on the craft mat and spritzed it with water and mopped it up more or less using the peeled paint, wilted violet, Worn lipstick & fossilized amber colors. the Sentiment is from the Altenew Thinking of you set and stamped with some Versafine onyx ink.

A peek at the inside. That sentiment is from a new Hero Arts set called You are loved.and this card finished out at A-7 in real life. And then when it was done I started to worry that it was "too pretty" color wise, I usually add in some black on sympathy  cards and then just decided to roll with it, I tend to like cards better if I go with the first gut thought.

more garden views

 So, I designed these gates and Hubs supervised them being built and then he hung them here on the main driveway. ( the service gate has a wood covered one that looks just like the cedar fence. (that wooden part is 7' tall to give you some perspective) so, each side of one half of this gate weigh's over 200#'s.

 When you are standing in the drive way in front of the garage doors if you look south this is what you see a pergola with grapes in the planter boxes for a shade spot. ( this was the first shade spot we made) and the grapes are 2 & 3 years old. they were all started from bare root ones.
Nope, we are not eating them or making wine out of them the birds eat them.

If you sit on the benches and look up..

 If you had cut across the front grass on the east side of the yard and looked west this is what you would see of the garden ( last Saturday)

 Behind the garage we had one of the garden carts with garlic drying on it.  it has since been put away and the new bits have been planted for next year.

 Inside the greenhouse you would have seen tomatoes, lettuce, peppers... ( and frogs)

 He doesn't realize he is green. lol

 if you find some shade you will find Grace.

 And if Grace see's the camera she will give you a close up of her smile.

 

If you were standing in front of the house between the two gates. ( behind me is the wooden one) 

I keep forgetting to shoot the north side of the yard. That tree died in the front about 10 years ago and the stump still has not rotted. ( I am considering having it whacked to ground level)

The East side of the yard. The deck went in this summer across the front of the house in anticipation of the livingroom & kitchen remodel. ( someday the front door will move from the south corner of the living room to the east side to open up onto this deck.) (maybe next year) after the kitchen is gutted and totally remodeled the roof can be re-done. ( it needs it now but, everything in the kitchen that vents will be moved so, who wants to buy two roofs?)
This is also mosquito city of our yard the one corner that is mostly shade no matter what time it is.

ah hubs took one of the patio ( which is on the north side of the house)  That structure on the stilts is a play house that we moved from our old house in the city. ( it was built, sided and painted to match that house) So, I hope you enjoyed this.

WOYWW #370 {Happy Mail & Coloring}

Happy Wednesday Deskers These are all tuesday desk shots with a monday afternoon garden glimpse. If you have not stopped by on a wednesday before you can find the link up for this blog hop at Jan's blog here while Julia Recuperates.

 Yesterday was day 1 of the current 30 day coloring challenge, and knowing that it was going to be a LONG day at work I grabbed the folding pallet of mostly QoR watercolors and the Daniel Smith dot card from the Hero Arts kit, 3 brushes a plastic well and a few heat embossed ( wplus9) blooms ( which really did not take up much room at all and my desk at work has a glass top on it) so, the work in progress shot before this one made it on to instagram and this is what it looked like when I stopped. so, a few weeks ago I picked up a couple of tubes of a different brand of watercolors and it turns out they are opaque. ( who knew they made that kind? not me, so far up till this point all my watercoloring mediums were translucent) (not, sure I really like them either, because of that) So, I did order a whole complete Daniel Smith dot card to play around with.

 So, while I was at work I received happy mail from Paper Sweeties one of the super sponsors from the recent coffee lovers blog hop and here it is. (I am hopeful about coming home from work earlier today than I have for the last week and hoping to play with it all) I did carry up the painted mums when I went up for this shot yesterday evening and off to the side are things that were used on some of my Dare to get dirty samples. ( any wild guesses?) :) you have your fan club membership active so you can play along with us right?

oh, the garden committee people did come by two Saturday's ago and DO want the Veggie garden on the tour so, this was shot on Monday evening because, they need some mug shots for the paper and the newsletter or something. not sure if they will actually use this photo or not because, they wanted to come take their own yesterday during the middle of the work day and I told them they needed to come by on a weekend if they wanted their own mug shots. ( you know like when we are actually home ha ha) This was shot on a ladder in the southwest corner of the front yard looking east northeast-ish. behind this ladder is pasture that the sheep are grazing in. So, that's about it for me right now. its water, weed & wait season here. and this cold is determined to linger on so, it feels like every "done" thing is a big accomplishment still.

WOYWW #366 {yard views}

 Excuses why I do not have amazing things to show you on my desk, a south front yard looking east shot. the tall thing in the leftish back is an pergola with grapes growing on it, benches and a wood burning fire pit.

 off to the right of that looking south is the veggie garden. ( what you see in those front boxes are mostly onions and garlic) the tall thing with the string on the left is for pole beans to climb. there are some tomatoes and peppers, Chinese peas and lettuce in the greenhouse.

 one of the more interesting peonies has opened by the patio. ( didn't get shots of that) will do other parts of the yard later.

what you really came to see, yep. I have not been doing much. I am still mentally debating what to make for fathers day cards so, while I was standing there being blank I ended up ripping off a few more wood blocks and sticking them to cling foam. most of what's on the sheet are Elyzbells in the UK size. ( I think she joined the team at Penny Black after she closed her store so, not sure if she is still making stamps like these for them?) ooh above that is how the words from the coffee cups got cut down to, and I did use some on some cards that will peek next week when the tpd challenge goes live next monday. Thanks for stopping by & if you'd like to play along with us this blog hop starts here at Jan's blog while Julia is recovering.

WOYWW # 321 Treasures found

I fully intended to post these mug shots days ago and shoot my desk as is yesterday but, I have not been upstairs since sunday evening

and so,  these are last Saturday shots. if you want to play along with us this blog hop starts here at our hostess Julia's blog.

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 So, last Saturday we did the usual out to breakfast then to some yard sales. and we hit an unadvertised sale at a baptist church down the street from our house. ( all of these stamps were 8.00 together) ( I have to go through them, I think they are mixed sets most the little ones but, they do have stamps in the box I do not own so, they were worth the 2.00) the photos below are closer looks at the stamps. oh yeah the postage stamps were free. they were in a pile of stickers right next to the stamps haha. and also found at this same sale was the green vintage metal table with no top on it and two side chairs for 30.00. ( these are heavy and not at all wobbly like some of what is coming out now trying to pass as garden furniture) Hubs is taking the table to work and going to put a piece of expanded metal into the table.

 so, we are pretty excited about this, have been looking online for months at metal "bristo" sets thinking it would be fun to eat dinner out here in the pergola when there are days with less bugs...

the other chair.

{ a catch up post}

just one view of one small piece of our front yard. and so, weed water and repeat season is in full swing at our house.

I have been begging for poppies for years and years and hubs always says to me... they look like a weed... no... and so, we started some flowerbeds out side of the fence near the street last year with things that don't need as much water. some lilac's some yucca, some red hot pokers... and drum roll please... Hubs started some red and salmon colored poppy plants from seed for me in his greenhouse last year... this year we came home to them blooming.

I needed a lot of thank-you cards when we got home so this is the closed outside of one, its held closed with the tulle.

what it looks like open.

Now while we were gone the featured stamper was Brenda. and I seen this notifying for the favorites

thread and I was struck by how cool all the gift sets she had made were and I got the idea to attempt that but, my cards did not really look anything like her's so. I never put them into the gallery. this pile was inspired by her though. :)

 

 

Then the weekend we got home there was a new featured stamper and I had seen something in her gallery that kinda looked like this (but not really) she had used this spellbinders die as a card base. so, I killed a lot of paper before I called it a not going to happen for me thing and managed to get one to cut out completely and used that as a mat on the front instead.

 Before we left one of the guys at work wanted a card to cheer up his gma who is battling breast cancer. and his request was to make it pink, to make if floral-y and to use these two sentiments that he had seen on other cards I had made... so, that was something that was stuck in my head for a while with the oh my gosh what are you going to do bwahahaha... so, this is what I did. ( he loved it, his gma supposedly loved it too)

the other sentiment on the inside. this one ended up boxed as it was pretty fluffy in real life. everything else I have made is a VSN sample and the wait is almost over for those. the challenges start going live tomorrow.